If there was an Academy Award category for best culinary documentary film – which there should be – The Raw and the Cooked would be a winner.
Prolific, if not legendary, documentary filmmaker Monica Treut, tours Taiwan, filming and enjoying a great variety of cuisine – their dishes’ preparation, presentation, and consumption. Her cinematography is utterly sensational. The people she meets – growers, distributors, restaurateurs, chefs, and hosts – charming.
Along the way Treut introduces viewers to several of the nation’s sub-cultures, their histories, and their respective culinary traditions. She briefly explores issues of organic foods, urbanization, pollution, and nuclear waste.
I added Treut’s tour of Taiwan to my ‘bucket list.’
Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel introduced me to this expression: No bad movie can be too short, and no good movie can be too long. Truet’s film is so engaging, I could have taken… twice as much.
Bon appétit!
http://firstrunfeatures.com/rawandcooked.html
